When salmon swim upriver, obstacles can block them from their spawning grounds. Photo: Shutterstock
For thousands of years, Indigenous people sustainably harvested and managed Atlantic salmon populations in present-day New England. The arrival of colonizers sent the species’ numbers plummeting. Today the endangered wild salmon can only be found in a handful of Maine rivers, hovering on the verge of extinction.
Recently, the Trump administration began gutting the Endangered Species Act, stripping away key protections for the salmon. Crucially, the administration argues that habitat destruction doesn’t count as “harming” endangered species. Since habitat loss is the main threat to Atlantic salmon, this poses an extinction-level risk to the species. CLF, represented by Earthjustice, is suing to reverse this catastrophic decision.
In this interview with CLF, the Penobscot Nation’s Director of Natural Resources Chuck Loring and Fisheries Biologist Dan McCaw discuss the Penobscot Nation’s historic relationship to the fish, their work to restore the species, and the future of Atlantic salmon in the face of the Trump administration’s threats.
Sarah White: The Atlantic salmon has been endangered in Maine for a long time. How has the Penobscot Nation led efforts to restore the species?
Chuck Loring:
The Penobscot have done some work removing barriers, upstream and in some of the headwaters (source streams for larger rivers). We partnered with a bunch of non-governmental organizations and federal agencies and restored some of these habitats – from upgrading road and stream crossings to removing other barriers that you may not think about, such as small, old roads.
Dan McCaw:
The Penobscot Nation interacts with federal government agencies, like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, along with the state of Maine Department of Marine Resources, to recover Atlantic salmon. We now have a collaborative management strategy, the document that guides how we all work together to make decisions.
One thing we’re going to be celebrating next year is Mattamiscontis stream, which is a tributary to the Penobscot River upstream of Indian Island (the site of the Penobscot reservation and land). We will be completing our last project in 2027 to make that entire area accessible to all species of fish. This is a major accomplishment that’s taken 15 years, millions of dollars, and more than 20 projects within that concentrated area. So, we’re really excited about that.
Stream restoration is the lane where we get traction to get things done. We may not be able to dictate policy. We may not be able to dictate federal budgets. But what we can do is put some structures on the ground that make these rivers and habitats much more connected than they were.
Sarah White: How does habitat damage like blocked streams and rivers affect salmon?
Dan McCaw:
A lot of the waterways in Maine are in pretty good shape. But on most of the large rivers in Maine you have large, industrial hydroelectric projects, every few miles. Salmon must access the entire length of these rivers multiple times in their lives. This means that they have to encounter and pass by multiple hydro facilities over and over. It’s a really challenging and expensive problem to keep fish out of turbines and to get fish to pass these dams in a safe, timely, and effective manner.
In addition, we have small culverts placed all over the landscape to bypass roads. They act as little straws, and fish just can’t swim through them. The salmon populations now have access to less than 20% of their original habitat.
Chuck Loring:
A lot of people don’t realize that Atlantic salmon spawn multiple times, unlike Pacific salmon. They’ll spend two or three winters out to sea and then come back. In a perfect world, they’ll come back multiple times to spawn. I don’t think we’re seeing that happening as often as it should be.
Sarah White: Why is restoring Atlantic salmon important to the Penobscot Nation?
Chuck Loring:
It’s a keystone species that our ancestors relied upon for subsistence. Originally, it comprised a third of their diet. That’s a pretty significant reason. The Penobscot think of all living beings as relatives, including salmon. All the subsistence species that we rely on – well, we’re not relying on them right now, but if they were present and abundant, we would be.
Sarah White: If the Trump administration’s attacks on the Endangered Species Act succeed, it’ll be much easier to destroy more habitat of endangered species. What do you think the consequences could be for Atlantic salmon?
Chuck Loring:
They could be pretty detrimental. Any loss of habitat is going backwards, against the work that’s been done. You know, we’re still not at a point right now where we’re able to even be fully recovered in the next 10 years or 20 years. So any step backwards would certainly be detrimental.
Dan McCaw:
It may get to a point after 100 years of trying salmon recovery in the northeast that our federal partners just throw in the towel. It is a daunting challenge to manage rivers as both habitat for Atlantic salmon and industrial areas. It appears the two goals are completely incompatible, based on the history of restoration efforts here in our rivers. Industrialization of our rivers is easy. Salmon restoration is extremely challenging when the habitats they depend on are inaccessible and have been severely diminished due to industrialization.
Sarah White: If salmon were to go extinct in the area, how would that affect the Penobscot Nation?
Chuck Loring:
It would be very detrimental to the culture of the Penobscot people. There would be a lot of missing connection. That connection’s important to maintain culture. We can’t necessarily fish for them, but we could still get youth and elders engaged in salmon restoration. At least see them, feel them in different ways, but without consuming them, right? So we still have that connection going on right now, and we would lose that if salmon were to go extinct fully.
Sarah White: Is there anything else you want people to know about Atlantic salmon or about the Penobscot Nation’s work trying to restore it?
Dan McCaw:
One thing that I think about, Sarah, is that for a very, very long time, for 14,000 years when the glacier melted here in North America and long before that, these fish have called this place home. They are tough and they are survivors and even with everything we have dealt to them, they still linger. They persist. They hang on in the worst possible conditions.
To bring back Atlantic salmon, society needs to make salmon recovery a priority over private business that continues to alter and diminish our rivers. We already know how to recover Atlantic salmon in the northeast. We lack adequate funding and staffing to support proper restoration efforts. Taxpaying citizens didn’t destroy these populations and shouldn’t be footing the bill for recovery efforts.
But, despite the shrinking program and vacant positions, the small recovery team in the northeast persists. The Salmon Savers. That’s what so many folks like me and Chuck and our colleagues have dedicated their whole careers to: Trying to fight for this one animal. I don’t think there’s a lot of quit in the people in Maine who are trying to honor these fish and fix the errors we made that are driving them to extinction.
